


the question here is

by shcherbatskayas



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Dysfunctional Relationships, Gen, Implied Unrequited Love, M/M, Mild Suicidal Ideation, Murder Coverups, Sibling Headcanons, Twilight Syndrome Murder Case, crime and punishment references, shcherbatskayas content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 05:51:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13920735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shcherbatskayas/pseuds/shcherbatskayas
Summary: Sato is found dead, and Juzo is left with a burden on his shoulders.





	the question here is

**Author's Note:**

> fjdaslfja;l so I was just talking to @eli-han on tumblr and we got on the angst train about juzo covering up sato's murder but also juzo and sato being siblings because they're both green-haired problem children, and now This Exists. ty for enabling me, i had fun writing this and also dying.
> 
> EDIT: this fic now has art for it!!! check out @eli-han's awesome drawing [here](http://eli-han.tumblr.com/post/172607131769/i-just-had-to-draw-something-for-shcherbatskayas). It's kind of the best thing i have ever seen in my life, soooo

They find his little sister dead on a Thursday afternoon. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, students are rushing to and fro to get to classes (or, more likely, to avoid getting to them), and Kyosuke tells him with no trace of emotion in his voice that his little sister is dead. 

“I’m very sorry.” He says, and Juzo bites down on the inside of his cheek to keep from crying. The sorrow is crushing, but it’s distant. Far away. Not fully processed yet. 

“You’re sure it’s Sato?” He asks, but it’s a stupid thing to ask. It’s Kyosuke. Of course he’s sure. 

“I’m certain, but the morgue wants you to come and verify that the body is really hers.” Kyosuke places a hand on his shoulder, awkward and uncertain for a fraction of a second, and then pulls it away. He’s never been the best at comforting people. Juzo knows that. The fact that he still tries means the world to him. 

“Was it…” Juzo stops his question midway through, remembering that they’re outside of the Main Course building. A student could walk by any moment, and that’s dangerous. Kyosuke guesses why he cuts off the question and leads him to his car. It’s a shiny silver thing that blinds him when he looks at it too directly, and so he averts his eyes as he gets into the passenger seat. Normally it’s Juzo who drives, but today, Kyosuke’s holding the keys. 

Kyosuke starts the car. The engine roars to life without a sound, and he drives. Juzo finishes his question. “Was it about what she did to the Kuzuryuu girl?”

“Of course it was. She was murdered for it.” He says, eyes trained directly on the road, and Juzo can’t stop himself. He jams his fist into the dashboard, ducks his head, and says the only thing that comes to mind: “FUCK!”

He punches the dashboard again, and then a third time. A fourth time. A fifth. Kyosuke, ever wise, pulls off the road and places a cold hand on his back as Juzo does a number on his dashboard. His cover-up was perfect. He had done everything right. He did everything he could to cover her tracks without her even having to tell him, because he knew Sato. He knew her impulsiveness, her protectiveness, her tendency towards violence when pushed too far. She had gotten all of it from him, and she didn’t need to tell him what he already knew the moment he found Natsumi’s body. 

When the dashboard is an unrecognizable piece of plastic and his knuckles are bruised, Juzo stops. He leans his head against the disaster and closes his eyes. Each breath comes out like it’s being filtered through an ocean in his lungs. Kyosuke keeps that frozen hand on his back. It feels like it belongs to a corpse. 

“It wasn’t your fault. It was Sato who left the photo where the Kuzuryuu boy could find it.” 

Juzo guesses that Kyosuke is trying to console him with that. The implication that it was her fault pisses him off so badly that he can barely breathe and he almost turns some of the senseless anger towards Kyosuke, almost tells him to shut the fuck up because that’s his little sister and so what if she messed it up? She’s fifteen, she’s a child, she’ll make mistakes, she’ll make mistakes and she’ll learn. Except she won’t, because now she’s dead, now she’s dead and she’ll never learn anything again. 

He swallows his anger. Swallows his tears. The torn-up plastic is puncturing the skin of his forehead and stupidly, Juzo wishes that it would pierce his brain and kill him because his little sister is dead and he has no idea what to do with himself. “So, was it Kuzuryuu, or was it his bodyguard?”

“Kuzuryuu. He was sloppy, so it wasn’t hard to track him down. It took less than half an hour. He’s in the headmaster’s office now, getting a good scolding for the trouble he’s caused.” Kyosuke removes his hand and places it back on the steering wheel. Juzo takes that as his cue to sit up straight, to wipe the blood off of his face with the back of his hand, to recollect himself. 

“I’d say he needs more than a good fuckin’ scolding.” He mutters. He mutters when he wants to scream because he doesn’t want to scream in Kyosuke’s car, doesn’t want to scream at Kyosuke. Never wants to scream at Kyosuke, because he loves Kyosuke more than he’s ever loved anyone in his life, with the sole exception being his now-dead little sister. 

“I’m sure he’ll get in a good measure of trouble. Don’t worry yourself about that.” Kyosuke glances over at him and readjusts his tie before he starts driving again. 

They go on in silence for a long while. He doesn’t know what Kyosuke is thinking about, but Juzo is thinking about Sato. Remembering her. He remembers her when she was newborn, when he was just a child himself. He remembers holding her close, swearing to protect her with his life. He remembers that the third thing Sato ever said was his name. He remembers that Sato sat through his competitions, cheered him on during training, once tried to fight a reporter who accused him of doping and he had to pick her up and sling her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes to keep her from beating them half to death. She was explosive. Dynamic. Determined. Hysterically funny when she was in the right frame of mind. Studious and protective and alarmingly astute and maybe the least loved girl on their side of Kobe because the only people who had ever tried to give her any sort of affection were him and her friend Koizumi. That was it. Not even their parents had tried to love her, which was a damn shame and something he never forgave them for. With Juzo, at least they tried. And now she was dead, and no one would ever get to try again. 

“You know what I need you to do when you get back, don’t you?” Kyosuke asks. It was the sort of question that wanted an answer. With the grief this fresh, Juzo couldn’t give it. 

“If what really happens here gets out, Hope’s Peak would get destroyed. You know Sato wouldn’t want that. She was truly happy there. You were, too.” Kyosuke pauses for a moment. “You still are, aren’t you?”

“I am.” Juzo says, but it feels wrong to say because his sister is dead and so he can’t imagine being happy about anything. 

“So you’ll do it? You did well with it before, and this time, the only person capable of meddling from the outside is sitting right where we need him. It won’t be an issue” He looks away from the road for a second, turns his bright gaze on Juzo, and it’s like being stabbed in the gut. He can’t say no to that gaze. He can’t say no when he knows how much Hope’s Peak means to Kyosuke. He can’t say no when Kyosuke is the only person he has left other than maybe Chisa, who would certainly forsake him if he let Hope’s Peak fall to shit, too. If he doesn’t do this, he is left alone. He is left with no one and nothing, and he remembers those first lonely years when there was no Sato and no Kyosuke, and he knows he can’t survive that again. 

“I’ll do it.” He says, and the words taste like blood. 

***

And in the end, he does it. He covers up his sister’s murder because if he doesn’t, he’s out of a job and a love and a life. He does it because he doesn’t want to hurt Chisa or Kysouke. Oh, alright, he won’t lie to himself: It’s mainly for Kyosuke. He hides away the evidence and cleans up the blood and sends away the detective because that’s what he’s been asked to do, and he’s the sort of person who just can’t say no. 

He doesn’t just cover up Sato’s murder, though. Oh no. He goes above and beyond because he’s Sakakura Juzo and he’s an exemplary Head of Security, the sort that gets lauded about in school reviews and staff meetings. He ensures that the murder fever stops, and he keeps that over-curious friend of Natsumi’s with a piece of hair that sticks straight up out of this, and he makes sure Kuzuryuu and his pale-haired bodyguard go unharmed because that’s his duty, and he’ll perform his duty, and he’ll perform it damn well. 

He does one more thing, too: He fixes Kyosuke’s dashboard. He doesn’t ask him to, but he does it, and in the end, it’s the only thing Juzo does that doesn’t make him feel sick. 

***

_The question here is: am I a monster, or a victim myself?_


End file.
